OREGON CITY, Ore. — As frigid temperatures continue to grip the region, people flock to a small resource center in Oregon City that turns into an emergency overnight shelter when temperatures reach 33 degrees with wind chill.
“We really don’t have anywhere else to go but here,” said one woman getting warm there Friday.
The resource center is the only severe weather emergency overnight shelter left in the whole tri-county area.
“It’s a little wild to me it; makes me extra grateful for the support we have in Clackamas County,” said Brandi Johnson, the executive director of The Father’s Heart.
They’ve helped more than 100 people during the day over the past eleven days, but their capacity only allows 49 people to stay the night.
“This storm has been just awful for our folks,” said Johnson.
They’re also using this time to connect people with services.
“There’s not a better opportunity to connect with someone when they’re here in front of us ready to engage,” Johnson added.
“This is one of the most important places that people can come to to get help,” added a homeless guest.
In Washington County, emergency overnight shelters closed on Wednesday as did those in Multnomah County.
“I was in this tent all this time; everything’s frozen,” said Alene Haunch, who has endured the storm in a tent along Southeast Powell Boulevard. “It feels really cold. If I didn’t have hot hands (hand warmers), that’s my saving grace to keep me warm.”
A man threw two pairs out his car window to Haunch as a KGW crew was there.
Another shelter, the Central Church of Nazarene, operates overnight, but has to close at 7 a.m.
“It breaks my heart, but we don’t have any other options,” said Joe Bennie, who works security at the shelter.
Bennie saw the dangers of no emergency warming centers Friday morning when a man staying there needed to escape the cold.
“He was literally crying, begging this morning for help,” Bennie said.
He called an ambulance and waited three hours. It never came.
“I said, 'Send somebody! Somebody has to come check on this man! I don’t care — send Street Response, somebody,'” Bennie said.
When KGW got there, Portland Street Response was taking the man somewhere safe. Bennie believes if warming centers were still open, he could have sent him there.
“That is a crime, and anybody who defends them not having them open all the time really needs to face the music on this,” Bennie said. “Once you get these people indoors, you need to keep them indoors that’s how you fix it.”
Multnomah and Washington County open emergency shelters only when it's 25 degrees or if there's enough rain or snow. The majority of people needing emergency shelters are in Multnomah County. A county spokesperson told KGW in an email once they decided to close emergency shelters it was too late for them to change course, given the number of volunteers they would need to recruit.
“After keeping shelters open 24 hours a day, five days in a row — a response that, at its peak, required staff and volunteers to fill 350 shifts a day — it was too late to do adequate recruitment and coordination to staff the shelters,” the county said.
There are non-emergency overnight shelters open in Multnomah and Washington County, but at KGW's last check, they are either full or beds are limited. Meanwhile, as warming centers closed, county offices did, too, because of icy conditions.